One Rode Alone
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: Oneshot. The last surviving Golden Girl goes to pay her respects to her three friends and reflects on her life without them.


One Rode Alone

"Curse this arthritis," Sophia grumbled to herself as she was helped off the bus by the young man who drove it.

"Here you go, Miss," he told her.

"Aw, you're such a sweet man, here," Sophia reached and opened her wallet and slipped the guy a bill, "Get yourself a nice girl."

"You gonna be okay by yourself, Miss?" the driver asked her.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine," Sophia said as she held onto her cane, "I'll be fine or my name isn't Sophia Petrillo."

The driver helped Sophia fit three bouquets in her other arm, then he got back on the bus to drive it to its next destination. Sophia kept the flowers pressed against her and kept a grip on her cane and slowly made her way up to the cemetery gate.

"Nice day," Sophia observed as she raised her head and looked around at the blue sky and the white clouds, and listened to the birds chirping in the distance. She felt the warm air with a slightly cool breeze on her 96 year old face as she walked through the cemetery entrance.

Sophia looked around and saw the thousands of different tombstones that marked the land. Short stones, tall stones, crosses, benches, monuments that looked like giant urns and trophies, she passed a few double graves for married couples, at one side of the walkway, three small markers were decorated with toys, the inhabitants of the grave according to the dates on the crosses were 6, 7, and 8 years old.

"God rest their souls," she murmured to herself. She would've crossed herself had she a free hand and better equilibrium on her feet.

At her age though it was getting harder to move around without her quad cane, she was getting so she took it almost as many places as she did her purse. How ironic, when she was younger she didn't need a cane, and yet she had been so dependent on the people she lived with to help her with everyday things. Now, she'd long since been forced to become independent again and yes she'd been forced to slow down in some regards, and finally bite the bullet and start walking with a cane and actually _look_ the part of an old lady, but it still amazed her how much she was able to function on her own now that she had to and had no alternative options. Oh well, get busy living, or get busy dying, and as long as there was a breath left in her body, Sophia Petrillo had a _lot_ of living to do.

It felt like she'd walked for a mile, but she finally found the spot she wanted. She turned on a corner and headed down to a nice quiet, still largely vacant area with just a few stones surrounding it.

"Hi girls," she said as she neared the spot she wanted. She looked around at the three large tombstones and went to the first one nearest her and laid out one of the bouquets.

"Ah, dear Blanche," Sophia reminisced, "The woman was a slut, but she had a good heart. Well, _not_ so good. Picture it, Miami, the year 2000, after she got her pacemaker in 1990, she tended to forget about it, then one night during a hot date it just gave out. Well…she always _did_ say she wanted to go out with a bang…68 years old, guess that newspaper man knew what he was talking about after all. Course we were all shocked to finally figure out that that _was_ her correct age, well, not _so_ shocked, we always knew she was ancient to begin with, this just verified our suspicions."

Sophia shuffled her feet over to the next grave and laid down a second bouquet, "Dear Rose…the woman could be a complete moron but she was an angel, she accomplished more good in her lifetime than any 10 saints in the church." She shrugged and said, "Of course we know what busy work it is being a saint, who has time to actually do good deeds?" She looked at the tombstone and lamented with a sigh, "Poor Rose, I _told_ her I was worried she'd choke on my hard candy…turns out she didn't need mine, she had a tangerine Lifesaver of her own one day and got the hiccups." She shook her head, "Poor woman, what a miserable way to go out."

Now approaching the third and final tombstone, Sophia laid down the final bouquet and said, "And speaking of miserable. My pussycat, Dorothy. I always wished she would've met another man and been happy, she always said she could be happy without a man…still, it would've been nice to know when her time came that she wasn't alone. Out of them all I think she had the best break though, just went to sleep one night and didn't wake up…" she let out another sigh, "I guess she got too comfortable in bed, I _told_ her you never get too comfortable…otherwise _this_ happens. But daughters…do they _ever_ listen to their mothers?" She slowly shook her head from side to side.

Sophia stood in the middle of the graveyard and looked at all the stones marking the final resting places of so many people, and many of them she knew, and it disturbed her so, were younger than her; some of them _so_ much younger than her, there were people buried here who died as children, some as teenagers, a lot of adults, some younger, a lot more middle aged, also a lot more towards retirement age, but still all of them younger than her. If she had the time and interest she would've walked up and down and read the tombstones to try and find one belonging to a person who was older than she was. But ultimately she decided against it.

Instead she looked back to the 3 stones she had come to see, and she thought back on her life, "Sometimes a long life isn't all it's cracked up to be, not when you outlive everyone else: I outlived my parents, my husband Salvador, my son Phil, my sister Angela, my brother Angelo, all my friends, my second husband Max Weinstock, I outlived that dumb bachagaloop son-in-law of mine, Stan Zbornak, my three girls…" she shook her head, " _Why_ is it that I'm still here and they're all gone? Why am I the only one left?"

Sophia raised her head as if looking at a 4th wall and said, "I'll _tell_ you why…" with a knowing smile on her face she said in a slightly more enthusiastic tone, "Because I'm a dancer!"

Putting her cane aside, Sophia Petrillo stood on her own two feet and did a slow and light footed rendition of a soft shoe, with a big smile on her face that was full of life.

* * *

Dorothy let out a half snort and her eyes suddenly flew open and she shot up in her bed and realized she was in her bedroom and she'd been dreaming. She looked around the room and confusedly said to herself, "What?"

* * *

Blanche shot up in her bed with a pronounced gasp and looked around and got her bearings and realized she was having a dream. This calmed her down some, still she sat up in her bed, bent her knees up by her chest, thought about the dream as far as she could remember, and cluelessly asked nobody, "Huh?"

* * *

Rose was still laying in her bed but she opened her eyes and slowly looked around the room and realized that she was still alive and in her bed in her room at Blanche's house. The memories of the dream were quickly fleeting but she could still remember parts of it and all she had to say on the subject was, "Wow!"

* * *

Dorothy tied her robe and opened her door and stepped out into the hall, and got a jolt when she realized she just about walked into Blanche, who likewise at that same time, almost got walked into by Rose, who was also coming out of her room.

"Did you girls…" Rose started to ask, but couldn't really bring herself to say the whole question so just bobbed her head as a gesture.

"Yes," Blanche and Dorothy answered simultaneously.

"Me too," she said as she tightened her robe around her, "I think we need some cheesecake."

"And coffee," Blanche added, "I don't care if I look like hell tomorrow because I didn't get my full 8 hours' beauty rest, I _don't_ want to go back to sleep and have that dream again."

"I'll be with you in a minute," Dorothy told them, "Go ahead and get the water boiling."

"Okey-dokey," Rose nodded as she and Blanche headed for the kitchen.

Dorothy went over to Sophia's door and slowly opened it and looked inside. Sophia's room was dark but she could clearly see her mother asleep in bed, a smile on her face, an occasional twinge of laughter escaping her, and it looked to Dorothy like she was moving her hands from side to side like she was dancing with a cane in her grip.

"'Night, Ma," Dorothy lowly murmured as she pulled the door shut.

* * *

By the time the sun actually came up over Miami, Dorothy, Rose and Blanche had been up for several hours, drank two pots of coffee, ate a whole cheesecake, then proceeded to eat all the ice cream in the freezer and the cookies in the cupboard. Now the combined effects of being up half the night and all the stuff they'd eaten was starting to take a toll on them, they were all tired again, miserable, and in Dorothy's own opinion, _all_ looked like hell with their hair messed up, their eyes puffy and the dark bags under them, and they all wanted to go back to bed and stay there for the rest of the day.

The kitchen door swung open and Sophia entered already dressed for the day in a pair of elastic waist jeans, a colorful button up shirt with an unbuttoned sweater over it.

"Morning, girls," she said cheerfully, "Coffee ready yet?"

"How're you feeling, Ma?" Dorothy asked tiredly.

"Terrific," Sophia answered, "I had the _best_ dream last night."

The other three girls groaned and buried their faces in their folded arms on the table.

"Well excuse me for living!" Sophia replied as she shook her head and went over to the stove.

The girls sat up straight again and Rose turned and asked Sophia, "What're you doing today, Sophia?"

"I want to find the advertisement section of the newspaper," Sophia said as she poured herself a cup of coffee, "I saw the other day there's a place around here giving dance lessons…" she turned to the girls and told them, "I'm gonna sign up and learn some new moves."

Dorothy, Blanche and Rose all groaned and buried their faces again. Sophia looked at them curiously and told them, "You three need help." She started to head towards the kitchen door and added, "And some sleep wouldn't hurt either," she turned and told them, "You all look so _old_ this morning." And with that, Sophia pushed the door open and went into the living room.


End file.
